Change in Expectations
by notoriousnineteen
Summary: A young woman taken as a child to be a Yautja pet is thrust from her domestic role into the middle of a hunt. She lives to please her master, but finds that their roles are evolving into something she is fearful to accept.
1. Chapter 1

**This will be a slow moving story, give me a chance to progressively flesh it out. I promise though it will be worth it, these characters have been floating in my head for the past month or so. Updates will hopefully be every two weeks, but I'll let you know.**

**Comments or reviews are greatly appreciated.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

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Camilla tore off a piece of the pink flesh from the carcass she was currently cooking. It was on a spit in a cybernetic oven, turning slowly for the past twelve hours. That was quite a long time.

From what little she remembered of human time, it was a short in comparison to time here on the Yautja planet. An hour she likened to more than half a day here. She wondered how old she was for human standards. Twenty? Twenty-two? Not old, but no longer a child. She was considered a child still in the eyes of her master. She was considered many things in the eyes of her master, she mused.

The young woman chewed the piece of meat in her mouth and smiled. It was done. She was very proud of herself for cooking the beast to perfection this time. The last time A'chide has brought back such a creature for her to prepare, she had burned the flesh much to his displeasure.

A'chide was still on one of his long hunts, this one had lasted about eight months, and the carcass had hailed his decision to come home finally. He had sent it ahead for her to prepare.

A welcome home feast is what he desired. He would expect her to be waiting for him, for her to fawn over his new trophies as they both ate from the animal he had killed, as well. It was a ritual they had done many times before. Camilla remembered being a child, wide eyes and staring at this large creature. He would show her the bones of dead things, monsters to her eyes, and she would just sit enthralled.

She tried to pinpoint the exact moment when she had stopped fearing the Yautja. Perhaps it was when A'chide had not mounted her own skull on his trophy wall.

Camilla wiped her hands on her dress, it was quite dirty (she didn't bother changing clothes as often when A'chide wasn't in residence) and she would be donning a new one anyway for his arrival.

With shaky arms she removed the meat from the spit and placed it on a platter. She blew on her hands which were burning from the heat of the meat. They were calloused a bit from old chemical burns, but they still stung from the extremity of the oven heat. She checked her utility band that was on her arm. The time on the watch component read 6:23:09, A'chide would arrive at 10:00:00 which gave her plenty of time to wash and dress and finalize the meal.

She would not deny that she was giddy for A'chide's arrival.

For eight long months she had been left without companionship alone in a large house left to idle the days away. She visited the market place to waste time talking to other humans and interacting with the Yautja she had grown familiar with from their many years of buying and selling. If it weren't for Mitchell, Adrianne and P'oshka she was sure she would have gone insane.

There were days when A'chide would send word from his hunt through one of his disciples and on those days she would sit and dream about going on a Yautja hunt. Not so that she could kill anything, but so that she could watch A'chide in his element. She was sure it would be a wonderful experience.

It was odd how consumed she had become about a creature that had taken her away from everything.

The young woman did not like to think about that too much. She was happy here; happy she had survived where others had not. Happy to live out a comfortable existence with a kind master.

Pushing the button that allowed her into her rooms, Camilla slipped her dress over her head and tossed it into a pile along with the other dirty clothes she needed to wash.

She was in a sheer shift that acted as her only form of underwear. The Yautja did not see a need for layering clothing and Camilla had learned that prudishness was not, in fact, prudent. She crossed the bedroom to her trunk that stood at the edge of her sleeping pallet. Unlocking it, the woman perused through the contents. Inside were at least five or six different shift dresses in varying shades of green and brown.

Camilla ran her fingers over all of them until she settled on an orangey-brown shift decorated with an embroidered sash. The sash's detail spoke of A'chide's many accomplishments on hunts, containing his blooded mark along with several other Yautja symbols of honor. He had given her this dress to wear to a ceremony of sorts three years ago. She had not worn it in a while and Camilla wondered if it even still fit.

Laying the dress on the top of the trunk along with her shift, she walked naked into the bathroom not before slipping out of her shoes as well.

The lights in the bathroom flickered on automatically as she entered and she was greeted by the floor to ceiling mirror. It had been unnerving at first, to be so utterly aware of oneself. Now, she was so used to just studying herself for hours on end in A'chide's absence.

Camilla looked at her face in the mirror, pulling at her cheeks and inspecting her teeth. Her hair was pinned in a ball of mess at the top of her head and she let loose the tendrils that fell to the small of her back. Long hair was greatly appreciated in the Yautja's society, so she did well with her full mane of hair.

Pulling a lever, Camilla tested the hot water pouring from the showerhead above the in-ground bathtub.

The shower was in the corner of the bathroom, opposite the toilet. Stepping down into the tub, Camilla let the hot water pour over her. The bathroom quickly fogged up, the mirror clouding and the atmosphere becoming hazy. She washed her hair with smelling oils and scrubbed her body with brown salts that she had bought at the market a month ago. She took a comb made from bone (of what she had not asked) and combed through the wet strands, fighting with knots and tangles.

Running her hands up and down her legs, she felt the smoothness of the skin. A hair treatment that P'oshka had sold to her was lasting longer than expected and she was pleased. The Yautja were a surprisingly cleanly race so they had many different resources set up for bodily health.

Pushing another button, the shower turned off and the tub began to fill with water instead. Sitting on a step, Camilla let the warm water bubble up around her and she rested her head against the edge. She would relax for a little while longer before waiting patiently for A'chide.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello lovelies! **

**I received such good response from the last chapter that I was quick to update, as not to leave you all waiting. Thank-you so much for the messages and reviews, I bask in everyone's approval. This is a little gift for you all, as this chapter wasn't supposed to come out until next week. My college courses just started again, so expect a little delay with the next chapter. No worries, though! I have a much longer chapter planned and this time it shall be written from the point of view of the mysterious A'chide himself. I left a cliffhanger to leave everyone wanting more.**

**Also, the model, Carolina Thaler, is my muse for Camilla. Carolina is who I envision when I see Camilla, if anybody wanted a visual image. **

**Comments and critique are very much appreciated.**

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Something was wrong. He was late. And A'chide was never late.

Everything was on time, calculated, and planned. It was something entirely Yautja about him; the entire species was wired like clocks. Punctuality was in there nature.

Camilla sat in her chair facing the dining hall's entrance. Behind her a large glass window faced out onto miles and miles of dead jungle; grey spindly trees warped and discolored. The background was an endless black, starless sky. She fiddled with her empty liquor glass, smoothed her skirts over her knees, tapped a few fingers on the table. She was becoming fidgety.

The table was elegantly dressed with all of A'chide's favorites. Camilla felt her stomach rumble; she had not eaten anything at all in preparation for this feast. It was impolite to start without her master, but she was beginning to worry that the food would go cold. She picked at the meat, tearing herself off another small, unnoticeable piece. She chewed and swallowed it, sighing at the empty chair across from her.

Everything was perfect and waiting for his arrival.

Her ceremony dress had fit like a glove and she had left her hair loose parted down the middle. She wore her utility band on her arm and glanced over at the time. He was very late.

Camilla kept her shoulders straight, staring down at the time on her watch until she finally gave up and slumped in her chair.

A large rumble outside brought her out of the stupor she had fallen into, and she heard the main door to the house close shut followed by heavy footsteps and a large slam of something colliding with the floor. Camilla gripped her chair handles, sitting back up. The slam was uncharacteristic of A'chide's normal arrival, and she wondered if she should go see what was wrong.

Instinct, however, told her to stay put and do as she had done before. The slam was probably connected to his lateness. Whatever that slam was the result of was not something good.

There was silence for a while, Camilla squirmed in her chair, and for a moment she believed she had gone insane and made the noises up.

She looked down at her hands, but looked up again when the doors to the dining hall slid open.

A'chide was standing there attired in full hunting garb with another Yautja, a Yautja whose skin was dark grey, dressed similarly. She remained calm, plastering a smile on her face as a sign of welcome. A'chide looked angry and she attempted to alleviate some of his anger by acting as if nothing was wrong and she was most pleased to see he and his guest. His muscles were tense, as were his guest's, and Camilla knew she should be tentative. A tense Yautja was never a good thing.

He chuffed at the Yautja with him and Camilla understood the command, "Stay here."

She watched as her master made his way towards her.

A'chide's frame was large and she had come to learn that he outsized most other males including the one standing in the dining room as well.

His shoulder span was the size of her arm span, her head barely scraped his pectorals, and he had immense hands that had killed many things larger than him. The hunting garb he wore consisted of his leather sarong, protective netting that he wore on his chest, arms, and legs and the alien metal defensive shields on his forearms and calves. A'chide's blood mark was on his broad forehead and his mane of hair, or what Camilla had always called hair, was flared.

She searched his face for a sign of what was wrong. A subtle hint at why he was in such a temper. He looked at her and it was a look that made her blood run cold.

It was anger.

Camilla immediately began to panic. Clutching at the chair's arms, she felt herself cower a bit. As a child, she had trembled in A'chide's presence when he was in such a temper. As a grown girl, she still did.

The young woman opened her mouth to say something but thought silence was the best.

"Go to your rooms."

A'chide clicked this out harshly and Camilla jumped a bit at the sound of his voice.

_Was this her fault?_

The thought quickly raced through her mind and she hastily glanced around at the dining room. Everything was as it should be. Perfect. He had not even looked at the table spread or acknowledged anything she had done. If anybody should be upset, it should be her.

He grabbed her wrist, his grip was firm and a little bit painful, and pulled her out of the chair. She stumbled a bit to her feet shocked and looked imploringly up at him.

"What did I do?"

She couldn't keep silent any longer. She had obviously done something wrong and wished to fix it.

A'chide was silent and looked at her sternly. He was daring her to question him.

Camilla rose to the challenge.

"I said, what did I do to anger you?"

Stomping her foot for emphasis, Camilla watched him intently. In the back of her mind, a voice inside her head warned her that she was crossing a boundary; but, Camilla didn't care.

The towering Yautja in front of her took a step forward and growled. Camilla took a step back and deflated a bit. Her anger was subsiding into morose fear.

"Go to your rooms, _pua'tono_."

_Pua'tono_._ Child_.

The other Yautja thrilled slightly in amusement and Camilla tore her gaze from A'chide to look at him. He was staring at her like she was entertainment and she flushed embarrassed.

Her master had just called her a child.

He did not mean child in the human sense of the word; it was more of a demeaning term. A'chide had just called her a dependent, a weakling, an _inferior_.

It was a term she had often heard used when Elders in the marketplace berated their protégés. The word had cut deep for the young Yautjas then, and Camilla felt its sting now as well.

Collecting herself, she nodded her head attempting to hide the hurt in her eyes before giving a half-bow to her master. Such formality had long been lost on them, but Camilla felt it was necessary now. She did not look at A'chide again but, instead, turned and quickly left the room, passing the large grey Yautja standing just before the door.

Once in the hall, Camilla attempted not to cry. Tears were weakness and she had been taught long ago that weakness was not acceptable.

Her head was beginning to ache from everything that had just conspired. Tears were beginning to fall freely and the woman ran the rest of the way to her rooms.

The doors opened and she quickly collapsed on her sleeping pallet, bringing her knees to her chest and hugging them to her body.

Camilla's tears tapered off and she just laid there curled up in a ball. Her eyes were closed, her mind wishing away the reality of her situation. Exhaustion eased the ache in her body and she soon succumbed to sleep.

That was how A'chide found her when he entered her rooms.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I apologize greatly for the fact that I haven't updated this in forever. My life became a little chaotic and I cranked this chapter out as a break between school work.**

**I hope you like it. It's short, and for that I'm sorry. It's more a transitional chapter before all the fun starts. It is also from A'chide's point of view, and he is very straight forward (no flourishing). I'm already working on the next chapter and I hope to have that out soon.**

**I love everyone that has added this story to their favorites. Thank-you also for the reviews!**

**I cannot express my love for everyone more!**

**-D **

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The Ooman was in a heap on her pallet.

He tilted his head to the side, perplexed by the awkwardness of the position the female was in. Surely her limbs would become extremely stiff if she continued to sleep like that? A'chide went to nudge her awake with his foot but he felt compelled to watch her for a while longer. It was not often A'chide had the ability to watch her sleep. To think of it, he did not often have the ability to observe her much at all.

Camilla was very much an_ oddity_ to him still.

All Oomans were complex creatures, as he had learned on the hunt, but living with them only opened up another level of intricacy that he had not yet mastered due to his extended absences. A'chide pitied the thing sleeping before him; he had greatly upset her and it was evident by the wetness on her cheeks. She had been crying and it was his fault.

She should not have challenged him in front of Gur'rung. Normally, such a challenge would be welcomed from the usual apathy many gave him. Camilla standing up to him in front of his comrade, however, had been very insulting. The Ooman female had reacted as any other female would have reacted, though; rashly and without judgment. She had been confused. Precedent had always been laid out for his arrival, but his arrival with Gur'rung had upset the balance.

Again, it wasn't entirely his fault. It was the Council's error.

Upon his return he had been summoned by the Council to discuss an assignment they felt he was capable of carrying out.

It was a great honor to train the future generation of Yautja warriors, but such a position required dedication. For two years, one spent their time on a reserve honing the skills of the young bloods. The reserve would be like any other, dangerous and challenging; on top of the usual dangers, he would be expected to make sure that the lives of the young bloods were safe. It was a job many vied for, but not A'chide. He did not care much for young bloods, they were no better than pups. They were helpless beings with weapons.

A'chide wanted to be free to hunt independently, not tied down by a handful of young bloods. This was a job for a soon to be retired hunter, not a warrior still in his prime. There were other duties the Council could give him that better suited him.

Arguing had not served him well. Instead it had cemented the Council's decision to send him within the next 48 hours to the reserve where he would begin training.

This is where Camilla came into issue.

His most recent hunting excursion had been his longest time away from his home on the Yautja planet. The house would remain here for his return; but, what about the Ooman? A'chide could not leave her unattended for so long. The Yautja had used this as an excuse as to not accept the position, but the Council had shown little concern for Camilla.

They had suggested giving her over to a female breeder to assist in the raising of pups. A member of the Council, a retired warrior, had offered purchasing her. That did not sit well with A'chide. Camilla was a trophy he had acquired a long time ago, one of his greatest accomplishments. She had not been abducted like other Oomans. Why should another hunter reap the benefits of his exploits?

The female remained still on the pallet, her shallow breathing being the only sound in the room.

She had grown thinner, paler and her limbs appeared to be a tad bit longer.

He noted the dress she was wearing, a gift he had given her to wear when he was admitted to the Council of Elders. That had been a great day; his triumphs were lauded and he had achieved the single greatest honor a warrior could receive. Camilla had been there throughout the entire celebration, watching the foreign world pass her by without grievance.

Oomans always complained.

The Yautja had hunted Oomans before on their planet and on reserves. Most of the hunt was taken up by watching them; studying the prey. Oomans were complex creatures, both weak and dangerous. Their mental capacity was great and they were excellent problem solvers when their emotions didn't get in the way. Yet, on every Ooman hunt he had been on, A'chide always heard complaints from the Ooman. Cries and wails instead of action. But, Camilla never did any of that. As a young Ooman, she had simply watched him. The wide Ooman eyes staring at him, studying him like one would an opponent before battle. She had not reacted like most Ooman would. The female had never attempted to disobey him by running away, like many other Oomans had. No, she had been complacent.

A'chide had done wrong by calling her a _pua'tono_. She had obviously taken care of herself in his absence. She was strong, she had stood up to him (a thing not even most Yautja would dare of doing).

This female would not be left behind to rot in the house alone. She deserved better.

A grunt escaped his chest before he turned around and walked out of the Ooman's room.

The meal Camilla had prepared for him was getting cold and A'chide had grown hungry.


End file.
